Essendon's Conor McKenna has retired, effective immediately.

 It was thanks to him that Melbourne’s fortunes started going off the rails in the early part of the season. We missed that game only one week after the resumption and we had a flat start the following week against Geelong. Perhaps, if McKenna hadn’t tested positive we might have had two extra wins plus a week’s respite by way of a bye around this time of year which might have made all the difference?

It’s not McKennas fault we are rubbish and don’t turn up to games of football and have been poorly coached for years Jesus Christ. 

Edited September 8, 20204 yr by SFebes

Board:  So, Simon.  Want went wrong this year?

Goodwin:  It's all Conor McKenna's fault!

Where's the irony?

I like McKenna more now.  He has had a lot of time to consider his life and what's important to him.

End result - I want to leave Essendon.

A wise man.

While I don't blame him for the postpone game I think it has had an effect on us an Essendon not having a break at all during the hub fixtures. Our Bye came after only one game back 3 months ago.

2 minutes ago, Bates Mate said:

While I don't blame him for the postpone game I think it has had an effect on us an Essendon not having a break at all during the hub fixtures. Our Bye came after only one game back 3 months ago.

Yet clubs struggle after a bye, even some of the best clubs like the Cats. Plenty of examples a bye is worse, so what’s our excuse? Edit: haven’t compared this year.

Edited September 8, 20204 yr by SFebes

The tests are so unreliable who knows if he even had it.   I don't blame McKenna at all, sucks that the game was postponed though.

If Goodwin gets the [censored], then I dare say that McKenna could indeed be the saviour.

Its always someone else's fault...

From the headline I thought they may have again mailed out in advance information for finals tickets for 2020, like in 2017. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

The tests are so unreliable who knows if he even had it.   I don't blame McKenna at all, sucks that the game was postponed though.

any evidence for that? 

PCR is pretty reliable... 

 

Bizarre to me that the AFL scheduled byes in a compressed season replete with 4-day breaks.  And our "bye" was spent with our whole squad playing a practice match on the 'G - hardly a break.

That said, if I recall Essendon had their tails up at that stage - we were far from a certainty of winning that game anyway. 

Let's also not forget game time is 20% less this year to so I don't buy into the bye or fatigue issues, maybe mental fatigue from the players for not having a coached plan each week is more likely. Approx 240mins less in 15 games, roughly 2-2.5 games of normal footy, so we'd be about 12.5 games and we are fatigued? This with a full list and a supposedly awesome pre season.....

Edited September 8, 20204 yr by SFebes

We would have got towelled up by Essendon in Round 3 had we played them. They were in form & without injuries. Now we might be half chance against a depleted & tired Bombers.

1 hour ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

The tests are so unreliable who knows if he even had it.   I don't blame McKenna at all, sucks that the game was postponed though.

Those tests were never designed to diagnose viruses 

56 minutes ago, frankie_d said:

any evidence for that? 

PCR is pretty reliable... 

 

From TGA website

COVID-19 testing in Australia - information for health professionals

26 August 2020

Tests for COVID-19 aim to detect the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, or an immune response to SARS-CoV-2.

The reliability of COVID-19 tests is uncertain due to the limited evidence base. Available evidence mainly comes from symptomatic patients, and their clinical role in detecting asymptomatic carriers is unclear.

1 hour ago, The Great Pretender said:

Essendon's Conor McKenna has retired, effective immediately.

 It was thanks to him that Melbourne’s fortunes started going off the rails in the early part of the season. We missed that game only one week after the resumption and we had a flat start the following week against Geelong. Perhaps, if McKenna hadn’t tested positive we might have had two extra wins plus a week’s respite by way of a bye around this time of year which might have made all the difference?

He should be condemned to the fires of hell forever. Our season’s failure is entirely due to him.

53 minutes ago, gs77 said:

Bizarre to me that the AFL scheduled byes in a compressed season replete with 4-day breaks.  And our "bye" was spent with our whole squad playing a practice match on the 'G - hardly a break.

That said, if I recall Essendon had their tails up at that stage - we were far from a certainty of winning that game anyway. 

Not quite tails up. They beat Fremantle and Swans in their first 2 games - both by a goal. I think there’s a fair chance we might have beaten them and Geelong at that stage.

I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that the course of the season would have been different and a bye would have been handy at some stage in the past few weeks.

44 minutes ago, The Great Pretender said:

Not quite tails up. They beat Fremantle and Swans in their first 2 games - both by a goal. I think there’s a fair chance we might have beaten them and Geelong at that stage.

I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that the course of the season would have been different and a bye would have been handy at some stage in the past few weeks.

No worries, thanks for clarifying.  I certainly agree a bye would indeed have been handy!

1 hour ago, frankie_d said:

any evidence for that? 

PCR is pretty reliable... 

 

Did he not test positive, negative, positive then negative again???  If that is what really happened, I would say the test is about as good as the Dees are performing... Hope all you Victorians are doing well ?.

Oh the irony that GWS just lost to Adelaide and we play them and those f logs from ESS the week after. 

1 hour ago, SFebes said:

Let's also not forget game time is 20% less this year

Also let's not forget that we're playing most of those games with shorter breaks between them.

1 minute ago, bing181 said:

Also let's not forget that we're playing most of those games with shorter breaks between them.

That's my point. Easier to recover. Besides I'm not making excuses for the club. Our form early in the season didn't set the world on fire either.

2 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

The tests are so unreliable who knows if he even had it.   I don't blame McKenna at all, sucks that the game was postponed though.

Got some stats that back that up the unreliability of the tests?